This is a beautifully written, powerfully engaging book that everyone concerned with the state of education should read. It reveals how educational systems create left-behind classes with dire consequences for democracy across the globe. Diane Reay, University of Cambridge "A rich, broad-ranging and perceptive survey of different dimensions of educational disadvantage, contesting the concept itself and placing it in a wider social and cultural context, both theoretically and empirically." Peadar Kirby, Professor Emeritus, University of Limerick